A sitting opposition Member of Parliament from Trinidad and Tobago has put the ruling administration under intense scrutiny, raising serious questions about an apparent slow dismantling of a community-focused development agency that has delivered critical infrastructure and social support to marginalized neighborhoods for nearly two decades.
Kareem Marcelle, the legislator representing Laventille West, outlined his concerns during a formal press briefing held Tuesday at the Opposition Leader’s downtown Port of Spain offices, three months after the United National Congress (UNC) took control of national government following general elections.
At the center of Marcelle’s allegations is the East Port of Spain Development Company (EPOS), a state-owned limited liability firm established by cabinet order in 2005. Tasked with driving economic, social, and physical regeneration across a sprawling zone of East Port of Spain—originally covering communities including Laventille, Morvant, and Belmont, later expanded to add Beetham Estates, Sea Lots, and Katanga—the agency has long overseen small-scale infrastructure projects and grassroots social programs for working-class and low-income residents.
Since the UNC’s inauguration in May 2025, however, EPOS has operated without an appointed board of directors, creating a leadership vacuum that Marcelle argues has crippled the agency’s ability to function. Compounding this vacuum, more than a dozen EPOS staff received formal termination notices just last Friday, cutting across every level of the organization: from administrative assistants, cleaners, and technical staff to senior project managers, social development officers, and project evaluation specialists.
Marcelle, who shared a copy of one termination letter obtained via email with reporters, also detailed a steep, ongoing drop in government funding for the agency that he says signals a deliberate effort to wind down operations. In 2024, the national budget allocated TT$15 million for EPOS’ social, economic, and community regeneration programs. That allocation was cut to TT$8 million in 2025, with only TT$4 million actually disbursed to the agency. For the 2026 fiscal year, the government has set aside just TT$2 million for development programming—none of which has been released to EPOS to date.
Even more striking, Marcelle claims the current administration has eliminated a dedicated annual budget line for EPOS infrastructure projects. Under the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) government, that line item provided between TT$60 million and TT$100 million each year for critical works. With that funding now cut entirely, Marcelle said no new infrastructure projects can move forward.
“What that company has done over the years is a lot of the stairs to go up your home in Laventille, or to pave your unpaved tracks in Laventille, or to build a sporting complex to fix a community field, to repair our failing drains, to execute critical retaining walls to prevent landslides,” Marcelle said, outlining the agency’s decades-long track record of grassroots impact. Beyond physical infrastructure, he added, EPOS has run targeted social support programs, distributing aid to vulnerable families during the back-to-school season and Christmas holidays, and providing core funding for local community, cultural, and sporting events that bind neighborhoods together.
Notably, Marcelle pointed out that TT$14.4 million remains allocated for EPOS’ 2026 recurrent expenditure, which covers staff salaries and board operational costs. “You had all the money to keep the staff. You had all the money to pay for your board of directors. You had all the money to have an effective running of East Port of Spain Development Company. But you gave them no money to actually do work,” he said.
The cascading cuts, leadership vacuum, and mass layoffs have led Marcelle to one clear conclusion: the UNC administration is intentionally laying the groundwork to shut down EPOS entirely, a move that would devastate the communities that rely on its services. “If you leave a company leaderless, how do you expect them to effectively execute their duties? How do you expect day-to-day operations to proceed and be funded?” he asked, addressing the government directly. “Is the reason that the Government has not appointed a board of directors to the East Port of Spain Development Company because they intend to shut down this company?”
Marcelle stressed that any closure or continued underfunding of EPOS would have immediate, tangible impacts on residents across the East Port of Spain region. Basic infrastructure upgrades and maintenance that residents depend on would halt, and critical social support for vulnerable families would disappear.
The opposition MP has called on the ruling administration to reverse course immediately: he demanded that the government move swiftly to appoint a full board of directors for EPOS, and restore full, adequate funding for both infrastructure projects and community social and economic programs.
“This UNC administration is systematically attacking East Port of Spain,” Marcelle claimed. “I call on this UNC administration to appoint its board of directors to the East Port of Spain Development Company to ensure that in the next fiscal year, that they properly allocate monies for our physical infrastructure development, our social and economic development, our regeneration of communities in East Port of Spain to give us our fair share of this national pie.”
As of Tuesday, attempts by reporters to reach Housing Minister David Lee—whose portfolio oversees EPOS—for comment on the allegations have been unsuccessful.
